How Jules Verne predicted the future in his works

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Eight things that seemed fantastic in the 19th century.

1. Space flights

Jules Verne wrote a lot about space travel: the novels "From a Cannon to the Moon", "Around the Moon" and "Hector Servadac" are devoted to this topic. He was the first of the writers to try to scientifically substantiate such flights.

In one of these books, the heroes are sent into space using a giant cannon, which throws the crew on the moon. In "Hector Servadak" travelers escape from a comet in a special balloon (hot air balloon) and return to Earth on it. Today these technologies seem ridiculous, but Verne foresaw the very fact of space exploration and inspired the next generations of scientists.

2. Widespread use of aircraft and helicopters

The first plane appeared during the life of the writer, but then it seemed more like an extravagant device, and not the leading vehicle of the future. Vern disagreed. He described the predecessors of today's airplanes and helicopters in the books "Robur the Conqueror", "The Lord of the World", "The Extraordinary Adventures of the Barsak Expedition". His "Albatross" and "Terrible" are similar to ordinary ships, but are lifted into the air with the help of propellers and electricity.

On the bow and stern of the Albatross, two four-bladed propellers with a large pitch are mounted on the horizontal axes; these propellers can rotate in opposite directions, moving the aircraft forward or backward in a horizontal plane. Their diameter is larger than that of the lifting screws, and they can also rotate with extraordinary speed.

Jules Verne "Robur the Conqueror"

In addition, Verne predicted widespread use of aluminum in the aerospace industry. In the 19th century, this material was very expensive, and the idea of cars made from it was perceived by contemporaries as absurd.

3. Fast submarines

Underwater shipbuilding appeared long before Verne, but it was he who predicted the development of this type of technology. In his time, submarines could sink very shallow and move very slowly. Captain Nemo's Nautilus, described in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, surpassed them in all respects. Even today, some of its specifications remain fantastic.

But Verne had foreseen the general tendencies. Autonomous submarines capable of long voyages, exploring the depths of the sea, going to the Pole under the ice - all this has become a reality.

4. The image of a modern city

In the early 1860s, Verne created a dystopia about the life of Paris in the 20th century. He described a world in which society primarily values technology and commerce. People live and work in skyscrapers, ride cars and high-speed trains. Huge shops appeared in the city. The streets are brightly lit at night, and criminals are executed with electric shocks.

During Verne's lifetime, publishers did not accept Paris in the 20th Century, considering the work too gloomy and unrealistic. The book was published only in 1994 - after the manuscript was discovered by the writer's great-great-grandson.

A more optimistic view of the future is described in the story "One Day in the Year of an American Journalist in 2889." In it, the heroes use renewable energy sources, communicate with each other at a distance and order ready-made food at home.

Like all wealthy people of our time, Bennett, having abandoned home cooking, became a subscriber of the reputable Eating at Home Society. Through a complex network of pneumatic pipes, the company delivers a wide variety of dishes to customers. The system costs, of course, not cheap, but the food is excellent, and most importantly, you can get rid of the intolerable breed of home cooks and cooks.

Jules Verne "One Day of an American Journalist in the Year 2889"

5. Computers, fax and internet

Verne's novel Paris in the 20th Century contains complex computers powered by electricity. They perform various operations in banks and are capable of transmitting information to each other over great distances. It became the prototype for computers and the Internet. The other machines he described ("photographic telegraphy") are the forerunners of the fax.

The machines really were like huge pianos; by pressing the buttons on the keyboard, it was possible to immediately calculate the amounts, balances, products, coefficients, proportions, depreciation and compound interest for any time frame and at any conceivable rate.

Jules Verne "Paris in the XX century"

The electric telegraph would have to significantly reduce the volume of correspondence, since recent improvements allowed the sender to communicate directly with the recipient; in this way, the secret of correspondence was preserved, and the largest transactions could be made at a distance.

Jules Verne "Paris in the XX century"

6. Video communication

In One Day for an American Journalist in the Year 2889, Verne described a thing called a phono-telephone. With its help, you can see the interlocutor on the screen and talk with the person wherever he is.

A telephone, supplemented by a telephoto, is another conquest of our century! If the transmission of voice by means of electric current has existed for a long time, then the transmission of images is a discovery of the very last time. A valuable invention for which Francis Bennett, seeing his wife in the mirror of the telephone, blessed the scientist.

Jules Verne "One Day of an American Journalist in the Year 2889"

7. Holography

In Verne's novel "A Castle in the Carpathians", a static image in space is mentioned, indistinguishable from a real person. In the book, the hero sees the holographic image of the deceased lover, takes it for reality and falls into a trap. Later it becomes known that this is a clever invention of a scientist.

With the help of mirrors tilted at a precisely calculated angle and a powerful light source illuminating the portrait, a "vivid" image of Stilla appeared in all the splendor of her beauty.

Jules Verne "Castle in the Carpathians"

In fact, holography appeared only 55 years later - in 1947, and began to develop after the invention of the laser in 1960.

8. Weapons of mass destruction

In the novel Five Hundred Million Begums, one of the heroes creates the prototype of chemical weapons. The shells of his giant cannon contain liquefied carbon dioxide, which, when evaporated, dramatically lowers the temperature. With the help of weapons, the character is going to attack the city of his enemy. As it is assumed, "every living being within thirty meters from the explosion site must inevitably die from this freezing temperature and from suffocation."

And in "Paris in the XX century" there are weapons systems that can be controlled from a distance. In Verne's universe, weapons became so destructive that all countries abandoned warfare. Although the latter did not happen, much of what was described has already become reality.